In another life
by BikerChick101
Summary: 5x18 visions AU; "It was a life we never could have had."


It was a cloudy day in Mystic Falls the day she met him, she was writing in her diary at a cafe she liked to go to when she was alone and he was the guy who picked up her mortifying diary pages when the wind blew them away.

The connection was instant, she had goose bumps on her arms from the moment they locked eyes and a bubbly feeling in her tummy when he spoke and when he handed her the loose pages their fingers brushed and she swore it was electricity she felt running down her spine.

"I'm Elena."

"I'm Stefan."

Elena felt a change as soon as they introduced themselves, he was on his way to meet his brother to properly register for school but she'd see him again, it was a small town and an even smaller school.

She didn't see him again until the week before school started, she was at the Grill with her friends talking about a party in the woods when she felt his presence. She didn't even have to look up to know that he'd entered the restaurant. It was a silly thought, she probably just felt a chill from when the door opened but she swore it was only him that made her feel that way.

Bonnie was the one to point out that she still had a boyfriend after she stumbled through her second conversation with him, only remembering her friends were there when Caroline introduced herself and told him to come to the party.

"They're practically over anyway," Caroline said flipping her hair over her shoulder and rolling her eyes. "I ship it."

"They are still together Care," Bonnie argued and Elena just looked back to where Stefan was leaving with his brother, their eyes locking one last time before he left.

"Not for much longer," Caroline replied smiling at Elena who wasn't paying any attention to them at all, her eyes still at the spot she'd last seen Stefan.

Caroline was right, Elena and Matt broke up the next day and Elena couldn't deny that Stefan was actually a big reason for her taking that step. It had been a long time coming, he wanted so much from her and she couldn't give it to him, it just took her feeling the way she did about someone else to go through with it.

Their back to school bonfire was one of many excuses to have a party and get drunk, everyone in town knew it but no-one ever did anything about it, unless a fight broke out that the kids couldn't control but that rarely happened.

Elena was talking to Bonnie when Stefan showed up, she shivered involuntarily and looked back to find him walking toward them with a smile. Bonnie excused herself to find Caroline leaving them alone. Elena found out enough about him to fill a book and she didn't think she'd ever talked about herself so much before. She learned that he was born in Mystic Falls but they moved when he was a baby, his parents died a few years ago and his brother became his legal guardian but it was Stefan who took care of Damon and not the other way around.

"So I was wondering if you wanted to go out with me," he said smiling nervously at her. "On a date."

"I can't," she said kicking herself, she really wanted to but she couldn't be that unfair to Matt. "I want to but I just got out of a relationship."

"It's ok," he said and Elena wished that Matt was an ass so she could go out with Stefan without feeling like she was going to drive the knife deeper into his chest. "I'll wait."

Elena wasn't sure how long she stood there staring at Stefan when he said that, she was sure her mouth was hanging open and she looked like a creep but she had never met anyone like Stefan before.

It was 6 months later when they went on their first date, true to his word, Stefan waited. Caroline was the one who finally got tired of the two of them dancing around the topic of their relationship and sat them both down to tell them that Matt was over it and it was time for them to stop finding reasons to not be together. After they finished laughing at their friend Stefan asked her if she wanted to go to the movies with him and she agreed without hesitation.

It wasn't awkward, not by any standards but neither of them really spoke that much. He picked her up at her house, told her she looked beautiful even though she was just wearing jeans and sneakers and she blushed accordingly. She couldn't pay any attention to the movie they were supposed to be watching, she just kept looking at him because they were on a real date and it made her feel excited just thinking about it, she quickly turned to the screen and stuffed popcorn in her mouth when he turned to look at her, biting her lip to keep from smiling too much.

They spoke over each other saying that they should go out again sometime when he walked her to her door afterward and both of them laughed at how weird they were making it for each other. It's not like they didn't hang out before, with friends and their brothers, a few times they hung out alone and they spoke regularly but it was like the label on that night made it feel as if it was supposed to be more.

And then he leaned in and kissed her and Elena's heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest, the lights came on and they broke apart, startled by the bright light. Elena knew her dad was watching so she said goodnight and went inside, knowing that Stefan would only leave when she had the door closed. She let her head rest against the door and sighed as she slid down it, touching her lips.

"So that must have been a good night," her mom said coming to sit down next to her, her dad was probably back in bed already.

"It was," Elena replied, leaning her head on her moms shoulder and giggling to herself.

Elena thought it might be a little awkward when they went back to school but Stefan walked up to her and kissed her before throwing his arm around her shoulder and walking with her to their friends like he had been doing it forever and Elena just went with it, content with how natural being with him felt.

She takes him to the lake house on one of their dates, to show him one of her favourite places in the world. It's a beautiful day so she drags him to the pier and sits down at the edge of it letting their feet dangle above the water. She tells him that she always wanted to be a writer and this was one of her favourite spots to write, there or sitting in a tree close to the house but that was more for when she was a tomboy. Stefan races her to the tree and helps her climb up to the spot in the tree that was most comfortable to her, it's so much more uncomfortable now than it ever was before but before she can start complaining he kisses her and she honestly can't remember what she was unhappy about. He tells her his dream is to become a doctor, specifically a neurosurgeon but that's going to be a long and hard process and he isn't even sure he's smart enough for it. Elena takes his hand in hers and lets him know that no matter what happens, she'll support him but she knows he's going to make it

Their first fight they had came toward the end of the year when they started getting their acceptance letters for college, they wanted to go to different places, he told her he was sure that they could handle long distance which she interpreted as he needed a break from her and it morphed into a fight neither of them were prepared for.

She was in tears when she got home and collapsed on her bed, her mother came in to just lay next to her after a little while. She started to tell her mom what happened realizing exactly how big she was making it before her mother even started to tell her what she thought. Her mom suggested a few things and before she could think about it she was back at the boarding house bypassing Damon with some girl on the couch and rushing into Stefan's room and into his open arms to tell him that she's sorry but she really, really doesn't want to be that far apart from him but there's still time to figure that out.

"I don't want to fight anymore," she tells him pressing a kiss to his chest.

"Me neither," he replies and she can hear how much he really doesn't so she just holds him tighter.

They both end up choosing something closer to home, nether giving up their dreams but they'll stay together, in the same place, it isn't even a thought in their minds that their relationship will end because they are so sure that they'll make it through anything because the love they have for each other is so strong and there's no way either of them is letting that go without a fight.

They move back to Mystic Falls after she completes her degree, most people in her position want to move to the big cities but she loves the small town that she grew up in and she doesn't want to leave it behind. Stefan still has 3 years to go but he doesn't mind the travelling if it makes Elena happy to live here.

It's their 6th anniversary when he has one of his rare days off, so he attempts to cook something to go with what he has planned for the night. He's pretty sure he's burning something and he's sweating all over the place when she walks in and teases him with wine. He tries to stop her when she starts digging in the cupboards for the opener but he's too late and she's already found the box, he knew that was a bad place to hide it.

She says yes without hesitation, before looking at the ring and before he could even ask. He can't help the smile that pops on his face and refuses to leave as he picks her up onto the counter, knocking down whatever was on it and kisses her till they're both breathless and she's saying 'yes, yes, yes' into his ear. He'd be surprised if any of the food actually survives.

Her dad knows about the engagement because Stefan asked his permission like the traditional old soul he is but her mom and everyone else is in the dark. They invite all their friends and family over and she subtly waves her hand around while everyone is mingling, her Aunt Jenna is the first one to notice the rock on her nieces finger and almost chokes on her wine as she squeals and wraps her arms about Stefan and Elena's neck. Her mom starts crying almost immediately and Bonnie smacks the back of Stefan's head before congratulating them because he's supposed to let her best friends in on this particular secret.

"Are you happy?" he asks her when they get a moment alone and she laughs as she hugs him.

"Ecstatic," she says kissing him quickly.

The get married in a church in the middle of summer and she curses the heat when she has to step into her ball grown dress, she's sweating and clammy and her make up going to be slide of her face if she doesn't find another way to cool herself down. Her mother laughs at her as she places the veil on her head and checks that she has everything. She curses as the veil pulls her hair and hopes Stefan is having a better time than she is.

Her father walks her down the aisle and she holds tightly onto his hand to keep herself from falling from her jelly legs. She feels the entire weight and stress of the day leave her when she sees him smile at her from the end of the aisle, waiting for her. Everything around her disappears and its only him standing there, taking her hands in his and squeezing them lightly.

The actual ceremony is a blur, and then Stefan is speaking and she can feel the rumble of his voice move through her body, she can barely hear the words coming out of his mouth but she's crying because she knows whatever he's saying is beautiful and he means it. It's her turn to speak and she thinks maybe she should have asked to go first because now she has to compose herself enough so that people hear what she has to say but Stefan's got this grin on his face like she's the most amusing thing in the world and she laughs through it.

She finds out she's pregnant a year after he graduates and it's the most exciting thing in the world to the two of them. Stefan is a doctor but he freaks out more than she does for every little thing and it drives her crazy at how protective he is being. She makes him buy her all sorts of sweet things in the middle of the night and smiles sweetly when he looks irritated at her and pats her stomach to let him know that it's the baby.

Leah Grace Salvatore is born at 5 in the afternoon with 10 little fingers and 10 little toes and the cutest button nose. She's all wrapped up in pink and never leaves Stefan's arms unless she needs to be fed and Elena can see her having her father wrapped around her finger already. Damon and Jeremy playfully compete to see who can get her the best toy and Elena has to remind them that she's only a few hours old, she really doesn't care.

When Leah is older she carries the teddy bear Damon bought her when she was born everywhere she goes and Damon never fails to rub it in Jeremy's face. Stefan's her favourite person in the whole world though, there is nothing that can't be fixed if he's around. Elena stops working when her daughter is a few months old, she tried it for a while but she hated the thought of leaving her baby with anyone else, even if it was her mother. She never imagined herself as a stay-at-home mom, she loved the independence working brought but she really couldn't imagine it going any other way.

She starts writing in her spare moments, just little scraps of paper here and there with ideas and quotes or random words. It takes her a while to put all these thoughts down on paper and properly form a story but when she finally does she's actually pretty impressed with herself. Stefan sends it to publishing houses because she's too scared too and she's surprised when she gets a call back. She feels accomplished when her book is published, she'll probably never write another book but her first does well enough to make her seriously consider it.

She has the worst scare of her life the day she gets a phone call from Damon to say that Stefan has been in a car accident. Caroline is with her when she drops the phone and grabs her keys screaming at Caroline to keep an eye on the 3 year old as she races out of the house. She ends up trying to calm Damon down because this was the call that he got when his parents got into their accident and he couldn't handle losing his baby brother.

It turns out that Stefan is going to be ok, he broke his arm and has a mild concussion but he'll be perfectly fine. Damon calms down considerably just in time for her to faint, the doctors let her lie down in one of the rooms and do a few tests on her blood just to be safe, she rolls her eyes but lets them do it anyway, they'll probably only find that she's a little anaemic and she'll be sent home with a prescription of iron tablets. She's almost ready to faint again when they tell her she's pregnant, they were not planning this but Leah is getting older and Elena is excited to have a another baby.

"You're pregnant?" Stefan asks shocked, she can't tell whether it's a good shock or a bad shock but she really hopes he's going to be as excited as she is. "You're not telling me this because you think I'm gonna slip into a coma and I need something to hold onto right?"

"What?" she takes a moment to stop her giddiness and look at him like he's grown a second head because that's the most ridiculous thing she's heard. "No, I'm serious."

She squeals when he pulls her on top of him so he can hug her and she giggles and tries not to hurt him too much but he's probably too excited to think of anything else but the baby growing inside her.

Thomas Jacob Salvatore is born 9 months later and Elena plays with his tiny hand and smiles at every face he makes. Damon decides to 'let' Jeremy win the best toy contest his time and picks up Leah, telling her that she's his favourite and Elena and Stefan both roll their eyes and laugh at him. Stefan gets into bed, snuggling close to Elena and let's himself drift as she laughs at their brothers playfully bickering and Leah joining in every few minutes to make sure no-one forgot her.

Years later Elena stands at the sink and sips her coffee, switching the radio off when she hears the weather man start to talk about a cold front heading their way. She feels the familiar shiver run down her spine and smiles because after all this time she can still tell the moment he enters the room. He tells her what he bought for her aunt for Christmas and she tells him that Jeremy is finally bringing a girl home, he calls her a liar when she says she's sure the girl Damon is bringing will be lovely and she can't deny it because Damon has the habit of bringing home the most annoying girls Elena had ever met and she's never been quiet about it.

Their kids run past them and she lets him know that Leah bit Tom, she can see the sparkle in his eye that tells her he wants to tease about the vampire dream she had a few weeks ago where their lives were so different and complicated and sad but instead he just tells her that everyone loves a biter, he does end up teasing her but only to let her know that he'll bite her back.

She laughs as she kisses him, holding him tight, never wanting to let him go, she's so glad that she found her soul mate in high school and that they'd made it through all the tough times without losing faith in their love. She can't imagine life without him, she doesn't even want to try, she's so glad she her diary pages flew away that day all those years ago because that's the day she fell in love with him, it's the day she started living.

"I love you," she tells him when they break apart.

"I love you too," he says bumping their noses together and tilting her head slightly so that their lips can meet again. "So much."

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**A/N : Hey guys so its the first time I'm writing for The Vampire Diaries and I really hope that I did a good job**

**I've been wanting to write about this episode for such a long time but I never had the inspiration and today I decided to write something really quickly in honor of Paul Wesley's birthday, so Happy Birthday Paul whoop whoop lol since its almost midnight where I am I'm rushing the post, if you guys find any errors please let me know and I will try to correct them thanks**

**This is basically the alternate universe-ish world the travelers created in 5x18, I tried to fit in as much as I could through the years surrounding that without making it toooooo boring and I think it looks good. I know that there's barely any dialog and that can be annoying but I hope this isn't annoying. **

**The kids names where sort of random, I know Paul has a sister named Leah but the name sort of just went with it and Thomas is a nod to Tom Avery hehe it seemed to fit and I like it so I hope you guys will too**

**Anyway please leave a review and let me know what you think about this **

**Until Next Time (^^,)**


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